Following is a statement from Lisa McGreevy, President and CEO of the Online Lenders Alliance in response to the FDIC Inspector General’s Report on FDIC’s Role in “Operation Chokepoint”

In its recently released report, the IG exonerated five FDIC officials who were accused of pursuing “their own personal, political, or moral agendas aimed at forcing lawfully operating businesses … out of the banking sector” because their actions were “consistent with a widely-held understanding that the highest levels of the FDIC disfavor these types of banking services.”

This is astonishing.

No government agency or employee has the authority to attempt to shut down legal businesses simply because they hold them in “disfavor.” This is yet another example of Washington DC being out of touch with the rest of the country.

Government employees are authorized to carry out the law. Period. They have no authority to act outside of existing law in order to force legally operating businesses to conform to their moral perspective. It is simply un-American.

We are disappointed and outraged that the IG report accepts the deplorable conduct of FDIC staff because it was “consistent” with the fact that “the highest levels of the FDIC” held certain legal banking services in disfavor.

The conduct of the FDIC is frightening and reprehensible and warrants additional congressional scrutiny.